


Life in the Breach

by ParadoxR



Series: Unto the Breach, Dear Friends [1]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Leadership, Military
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1717322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxR/pseuds/ParadoxR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carter's first day back as SGC 2IC after the Ori recall. It starts routinely enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Once More

A/N: This series is about the military complexities of the SGC, particularly for first-contacters as experienced Special Operators. This fic is inside Sam's head as a CO and polyglot Sapper with thousands of hours in everything from mission planning and commanding hot Gate exfils and direct action, to Jaffa CQC and minute cross-cultural gesticulations, to assessing and jury-rigging almost anything she's never seen.

WARNING – This series (not this fic) explains the Mitchell's lack of qualifications for SG-1. It's less anti-character than anti-‘the SGC is easy’, anti-‘overlook all qualified candidates’, anti-‘that's a Medal of Honor but nothing else is’, and anti-‘clearly we can’t leave Carter as CO of SG-1 because <no reason could possibly fit here>’. Mitchell fans will want to avoid the labeled fics in this series, but are otherwise safe.

I don’t own  _Stargate_  or  _Henry V_ , but you should see both. This series has been edited and reorganized from the original "Unto the Breach" (which stopped at part 8).

* * *

Rap-tap-tap. “Hi!”

Sam looks up from unpacking and smiles back at the doctor beaming in her doorway. “Good morning, Jay.”

“So you really are back? I thought they were joking!” Sam smile-smirks in spite of herself. _Now I wonder why he’d think someone would trick him?_ She offers Felger her mostly-full attention. Years handling this level of excitement have taught her it was either that or a willingness to clean up the unmitigated aftermath.

“Couldn't stay away,” she jokes, leaning back against her desk and glancing around her lab.

She loves this place, but having the expanse of Area 51 to prioritize and direct all DHWS's potential projects had been a lot smoother than leading expedient measures from the front line. Of course, it'd been nicer mostly because they weren't at war.

“...I mean it's just so great to have you back! We missed you, didn't we Bill?”

Sam smiles between Jay and the new arrival. “I appreciate that, guys. I don't mean to step on anyone's toes back here.” She directs the last look at Dr. Lee, sincerely commiserating.

“It’s not like they demoted me, Sam.” The SGC was just _huge_ again. He suppresses an eye roll, recalling the influx of new 51ers. “If the Ori are Gate guys, it's hard to blame DC for sticking gister where the action is. I just wish we’d prioritized the ships for longer though.”

Sam nods; they'd always been on the same page about the long-term view. “I'm still working on it, but we've got a lot of work to do just for stopgap right now.”

He nods. “You know me. Just point me at the problem!”

Sam chuckles, grateful for his optimism. “ _Still_  haven't met a problem you didn't like, Bill? I could sure use that in pri!”

Bill chuckles himself, comfortable in the old exchange. “You know I trust your judgment. With everything there is to do around here, all the opportunities—better you than me in choosing.”

“It's more the threats I'm worried about than the opportunities, but I really appreciate that—”

“You've earned it.” Jay finds his entrance a little too emphatically, but Bill concurs nonetheless.

“Thanks, guys. …Hey, still come to the priority review at 0930, though? Lunch is on me.”

“Lunch at 0930? …Topside lunch?”

Sam laughs. Darn rotation/sleep schedule.

“Breakfast—briefing room. I’m on Quarterdeck for SG-47.” Jay nods at her answer, albeit discouraged. She pats the two men’s turning backs before setting about to packing again. Err, unpacking. …It'd been a long time since SGC science had been small enough for either doctor to report directly to her, but sometimes they (especially Felger) still felt like her charges. She’ll need to check on everyone else as they arrived.

* * *

 

I’m 100 light years from their careers, so some slang’s a little iffy. Still, I wrote this how I thought it: I hope it gives the feel of complex their work environment really is. Each chapter ends in a non-cumulative glossary …occasionally a rant. * here means I made it up. I hope it’s not too over-emphasized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snake Eater: Easy shorthand for all special operations forces.  
> CQC: Close Quarters Combat.  
> Hot; Exfil: Subject to enemy fire/control (here, also damaged Gates/DHDs); exfiltration.  
> Gister(*): Person who gists through loads of information to boil down, synthesize, prioritize and recommend/handle it. I vaguely recall this being the nickname for a guy I once knew who wrote briefs for senior officials in DC.  
> Pri*: Prioritizing, specific to the SG squadron.  
> On Quarterdeck(*): On rapid deployment status, with the SGC Quarterdeck as, say, Levels 27 & 28 within 45sec of the Control Room.  
> SG-47: The fourth-string sister unit to SG-7 (mid-term scientific). Why TPTB apparently numbered chronologically when clearly the most important thing about any of them is their specialty, I have no idea.  
> Once ore unto the breach, dear friends, once more.


	2. In Our Ears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minor spoiler: mentions Mark IX conclusion (“Beachhead”, 906).

_“Thanks, guys. …Hey, still come to the priority review at 0930, though? Lunch is on me.”_

_“Lunch at 0930? …Topside lunch?”_

_Sam laughs. Darn rotation/sleep schedule._

_“Breakfast—briefing room. I’m on Quarterdeck for SG-47.” Jay nods at her answer, albeit discouraged. She pats the two men’s turning backs before setting about to packing again. Err, unpacking. …It'd been a long time since SGC science had been small enough for either doctor to report directly to her, but sometimes they (especially Felger) still felt like her charges. She’ll need to check on everyone else as they arrived._

 

It’s good to at least have her leads facing the prospect of a new war so readily, though she knows it’ll take a month or so for them and the other downstream civilians to really synthesize this new predicament. Lee’s long-term development lab was always more isolated than her flight-turned-squadron tasked with stopgaps, assessment, and prioritizing.  _Her squadron_ , she muses, even now as base 2IC dealing with all of Gate control. Always. She’s certainly stayed up enough nights comforting a young scientist over a measure they hadn’t been able to decipher, implement, or budget quickly enough to save a good person’s life or limb. Military or civilian, that part would never get easier.

 _Here we go again._  She sighs. Her own squadron is actually taking it pretty well, even the guys that’ve had to relocate twice recently. Thank God, too, she didn’t know where she’d be without Mack as squadron NCOIC and Qui as her SQ/CD. He’s made a great CC and was only getting better. The whole lot is fantastic, though they’d need to really hone in on how everyone and their families were readjusting this weekend. Deep space radar telemetry notwithstanding, families always sensed when stuff was hitting the fan. Keeping a united presence helps a lot—who could blame them for wanting to know who had their loved ones backs? Was there a function planned yet? She’d need to talk to Landry.

 

Glancing at the clock, Sam pulls up her shorthand notes for the 0930 briefing again, quickly requashing the painful Mark IX reminisce.  _Gate containment, cross-checking, medical standards, detection_ , she jumps the particularly long list of sub-bullets and sub-sub-bullets _, escape/exfil, resistance, hot Gate SOP, foothold plans, painting, counter-ISR, neutralization_ (yeah, just drop that one in there)… _ROEs, code revisions, reporting protocols, SIGINT, HUMINT_ (can I call it that?) _..._

They definitely have their work cut out for them. She’ll need time, and she isn’t sure that Landry understands all the military, scientific and diplomatic (both from her unit and Daniel’s) decisions that have gone into setting SG-1s missions and rotation for going on half a decade. He doesn’t seem like a micromanager of good people though, and she doubts General O’Neill would saddle the SGC with a new officer unwilling to learn from the lessons of interplanetary wars past. Still, she remembered the candid conversation where Hammond warned the seniors of his retirement: they’d all wished the next war could have waited until she and Reynolds were at TIS. The longish break would’ve been appreciated for all too many reasons.

Sam flips to the next section of the planning document, quickly scanning past the budget numbers.  _...failure modes, bingo points...estimated sortie tempos, backup sites, retrofitting costs, projected training hours by team and flight..._

Grimace. Training is going to be tricky. There’d been a massive recall—she of course being part of it—when JCS agreed this was a long haul threat, but there were still more butterbars floating around than they’d had in years. She’s all for continuity, but it bothered just about everyone that even 8 years later they couldn’t get servicemembers pre-trained in skillsets similar to what they needed. Basic SGC training had grown exponentially in the last few years to keep pace as the bandit ISR network managed to track and target even follow-on SGs. Even getting junior enlisteds Gate Room certified would be easier if they were at least E-4s. She certainly gets an earful of that problem often enough. …Oh yeah, they’d come a long way from throwing kids like her in the deep end and sandwiching Sapper and Robin Sage between foothold situations. Good thing, too. Every SG knew that the only time more dangerous that  _your_  first step through the Gate was your wingman’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NCOIC; SQ/CD: Non-Commissioned Officer in Change; Deputy Squadron Commander.  
> TIS: Time in Service, here, the TIS she and Reynolds would need to make full colonel (and then general ranks, which don’t have their own time requirements).  
> Butterbars; E-4s: 2nd Lieutenants (new officers); AF Senior Airmen (~3 years).  
> Sapper: Combat engineer, here Sapper Leader Course, a month long suck-fest (so I’m told).  
> Robin Sage: Cumulative exercise for Special Forces (Green Beret) candidates, whose focus is training indigenous forces. I know access is a problem for Carter, but physically the first SPECOPS guys I ever knew were 6 inches short of me (a 68” female stick) and also sticks.
> 
> But when the blast of war blows in our ears…


End file.
